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A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy
dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. (Ps 68:5-6a)
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He truly does! Knowing God is all about relationships - with Him, but also with
others. There's no such thing as a lone Christian. The greatest commandment
is to love the Lord with ALL we have and are - do you truly love Him with
EVERYTHING you are and have? - but also to love my neighbor. If you read the
Bible, you will notice how important community is to Jews, and to God. We in
the Western world have no idea what community really is. Or what it means to
love my neighbor. For most my neighbor is myself. Do we consider others
better than ourselves? Are we ready to put their needs over our own? Are we
even willing to lay our lives down for a brother or sister? Tough questions.
Over the past few months I've experienced something I had never even dreamed
possible. I've gotten a little glimpse of what community is like. Of what it
is like to truly be a family. To have mothers and fathers and brothers and
sisters and daughters and sons. I believe it is absolutely crucial for us to
come together like that with what is on the horizon, what is coming, to be
able to withstand and be alight. Recently I saw this thing coming closer,
threatening and horrible. But then a wall of love came up and it couldn't
penetrate. Only love will protect us. And it needs to be a wall of love that
we cannot form alone. The key is our personal, intimate relationship with
Him. It is the foundation for everything. How much time do you spend with the
Lover of your soul every day? Have you found that intimate place on His
chest, where you hear His heartbeat and the whisper of His voice? I wanna
encourage you to seek HIM with all your strength; the day may not be far when
it is gonna be a matter of life or death. Learn to hear His voice - and act
on it!
CATCH THE WIND www.catchthewind.net
While much darkness is coming, the Lord is still the same He was yesterday,
desiring all nations to turn to Him, now rather than on judgment day. He
still heals, delivers, sets free, saves, prospers - by the way, all things
that the word translated "salvation" really means. He is looking
for those who are ready to give up EVERYTHING to be HIS vessel for HIS works
to expand HIS Kingdom whereEVER He wants. I wanna be one of them And Catch The Wind is made up of people like that. It's been awesome to be a part of CTW
from the very beginning, and watch what He does with willing people. I'd like
to encourage you to check out the webpage, that has just recently been
updated, including pictures from the two Bulgaria trips, info on upcoming
trips and the team. Dr Dave Ryser, our former School of Ministry Dean, a
wonderful man of God who's become a Dad to me, heads CTW Ministries, and I'm
looking forward to the adventures ahead. While my heart is constantly in
Mali, waiting for that door to open, I believe my involvement with CTW might
be longer and deeper than expected.
SCHOOL OF MINISTRY (WRSM)
I'm having finals this week, finishing the first trimester of the second
year. It's been a trimester that surprised me. I had expected the Hebrew
class to be my favorite, and Preaching my least favorite, but it was the
other way round. As a linguist, I felt like an adult who was put into a
children's language course, which was really challenging. And when I first
read the curriculum for WRSM less than two years ago, I dreaded the preaching
class. Now, it is my favorite. This semester has been mainly theory, but in
Januray we're actually starting to preach, and I can hardly wait... I feel
more and more like Jeremiah who said, "His word is in my heart like a
fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I
cannot." (Jer 20:9) And those who have know me certainly know that this
must be God's doing!
Today I finished my last paper for this trimester - praise God! Let me remind
you that all my papers are on my webpage (click on ACADEMIC), and some are
worthwhile reading.
CHRISTMAS
This Christmas break is gonna be my first break without school work. I'm
gonna have a real vacation! Not only that, I'll be busy visiting people; all
those wonderful people the Lord has brought into my life, and me into theirs,
as He welds us together. I'll be leaving town this Thursday after the church
service and stay with friends till Sunday, then stay with another family over
night, and on Monday, Dec 23, I'll go up to northern Missouri, where I'll stay
for a week over Christmas. This is gonna be my first Christmas away from home
- the most special time of the year in my family - and I'm so thankful that I
may spend that time with a wonderful family of 8 (6 kids), new friends that
have been such a great enrichment! After that week, we'll all go to Mike
Bickle's youth conference Dec 29-Jan 1, including THE CALL
KANSAS CITY. And before school starts Jan 13, I'll be going south to Oklahoma
to visit some more wonderful friends, gifts from God.
MALAWI - MARCH 1-12
As mentioned earlier, Todd Bentley (www.freshfire.ca) is
partnering with Heidi Baker (www.irismin.org) in
March of next year, doing a huge crusade in Malawi, East Africa (not to
confuse with Mali, West Africa). Over 3 million people are in danger of
starvation by April, so that God spoke to Todd to feed the people there while
doing the crusade - over 100,000 three times a day for four days. For a whole
year I've known that I had to go with/visit those two ministers before
returning to Mali myself, so that I'm very excited about this opportunity. My
application has already been sent, now all I need is to trust for the
provision of the $3000 it will cost.
Please check out the information that is on my webpage
(www.healing2thenations.net) and you can also donate towards the trip via
internet by clicking on the PAYPAL button there.
VISA
Things are moving - an INS team is coming to visit the school which is a good
sign that it won't take much longer. Please continue praying!
2003
is gonna be an exciting year. The closer graduation comes (August), the more
I feel like a race horse that's about to hear the start shot. I just got the
first few books for my Masters thesis...
It will also be a year of being His ambassador to the nations, a small beginning
of stepping into my calling, of bringing healing to the nations. The Malawi
trip is in March, as is CTW's third Bulgaria trip (where I minister from
Kansas City, sending the e-mail updates). In May, I'll be going to Vienna for
my 30th birthday, followed by CTW's fourth trip to Bulgaria (and my first),
and a stop in Latvia. In summer I might be going to England with CTW, and
once I graduate in August...
Well, enough visionary writing for tonight - I'd better get some sleep with
my finals ahead.
I appreciate you all, and would love to hear from you. Also, check out my
webpage - I've worked on it recently, and a totally redesigned one will be up
after Christmas.
As we learned in Hebrew class: Yevarechecha Adonai, veyishmerecha! Ya’er Adonai panav elecha vichunecha! Yisa
Adonai panav elecha veyasem lecha shalom! (Num
6:24-26)
All HIS,
Claudia
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Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your inheritance. (Ps 2:8)
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Mag. Claudia R. Wintoch
10808 Fremont Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64134
USA
(+1)816-966-9294
claudia@healing2thenations.net
www.healing2thenations.net
www.healing2thenations.injesus.com
Talk to me online - I'm "healing2thenations":
yahoo/msn messenger
Your support - whether by prayer or giving - is greatly appreciated.
In Europe:
Bank name: BA/CA
Bank number: 12000
Account number: 509.101.468.00
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